Question for onborad compressor teams

[connor.worley]

Did you run your compressor through the COMPRESSOR OUT terminals on the PCM, or did you use a Spike instead? If you ran off of the PCM, did you run into any problems with small wire and high continuous current draw from the compressor?

[marshall]

Originally Posted by connor.worley

Did you run your compressor through the COMPRESSOR OUT terminals on the PCM, or did you use a Spike instead? If you ran off of the PCM, did you run into any problems with small wire and high continuous current draw from the compressor?

This was actually talked about at length in the beta feedback session at CMP. The bottom line from Omar and Mike (CTRE) is that there have not been any issues but if you find one then let them know so they can re-create it.

[M3rcuriel]

If you want anecdotal evidence along with the above, my team used an on-board compressor all year without a Spike, and had no problems.

[feverittm]

Our Team also ran the smaller Vlair compressor all season connected through the PCM without any issues with the compressor or the fuse. Our only issue is that the wire gauge requirements on the power terminals for the PCM are smaller than I believe they should be. Not because of current, but because of compatibility across all the modules.

[Jon Stratis]

We ran the larger viair all season through the PCM without any problems. We also tested the smaller viair and an older Thomas compressor on the PCM during alpha and beta testing, both without any issues.

[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by connor.worley

Did you run your compressor through the COMPRESSOR OUT terminals on the PCM, or did you use a Spike instead? If you ran off of the PCM, did you run into any problems with small wire and high continuous current draw from the compressor?

For this year, Team 2052 used the Spike to run our on-board compressor(250C-IG) instead of the compressor out terminals on the PCM. We used the Spike instead because we were worried about the high current draw from the compressor as well.

[evanperryg]

Originally Posted by connor.worley

Did you run your compressor through the COMPRESSOR OUT terminals on the PCM, or did you use a Spike instead? If you ran off of the PCM, did you run into any problems with small wire and high continuous current draw from the compressor?

No issues. Took a while to jam the compressor wires into the thing, but it works fine.

[Sparky3D]

Originally Posted by evanperryg

No issues. Took a while to jam the compressor wires into the thing, but it works fine.

We spent an ridiculous amount of time trying to wire the smaller Viair compressor directly to the PCM. We would think we had the wires in securely, but they would always come loose again after driving the robot for any length of time. We ended up having to add a connector and run a short length of smaller gauge wire to the PCM. I REALLY wish they would have made those terminals a bit larger.

[TogetherSword8]

Originally Posted by Sparky3D

We spent an ridiculous amount of time trying to wire the smaller Viair compressor directly to the PCM. We would think we had the wires in securely, but they would always come loose again after driving the robot for any length of time. We ended up having to add a connector and run a short length of smaller gauge wire to the PCM. I REALLY wish they would have made those terminals a bit larger.

We also ran the wires into the PCM. Although we originally tried to use larger gauge wire (I think 14, can't quite remember) we had to swap it to 16 for the same reason as above. Other than that, we never had a problem with running the compressor though the PCM. Just problems with 1 and 2 year-olds pulling on the wires.

[Gregor]

We ran the baby VIAR off a spike as a precaution given the new hardware, but I'd probably wire it straight to the PCM in future years given that there were no problems that I heard of.

[mman1506]

We had a ton of issues with blowing the fuse on the PDB while using a Thomas compressor off the PCM. We had to be pulled off the field a couple of times due the fuse blowing while pre-charging. It could be that our compressor is faulty and has a exceptionally high startup current but I'd really like to see a more robust solution in the future.

[Melchior Vester]

Team 27 has been using it all during beta season and during the 2015 season and haven't ran into any problems running the compressor off the PCM

[marshall]

Originally Posted by mman1506

We had a ton of issues with blowing the fuse on the PDB while using a Thomas compressor off the PCM. We had to be pulled off the field a couple of times due the fuse blowing while pre-charging. It could be that our compressor is faulty and has a exceptionally high startup current but I'd really like to see a more robust solution in the future.

Do you still have that compressor? If so then you should get in touch with Mike Copioli from CTRE. He was offering up his left arm for examples of this at the beta feedback talk IIRC.

[Ari423]

We used the small Viair as an onboard compressor off the PCM for the entire season and never ran into a problem with it once. We had a huge amount of air storage this year because your lift was completely pneumatic (2 18" throw 1.5" d pistons) so we used the compressor a lot beyond its recommended specs. Since it takes us about 3-5 minutes to charge between matches, we often ran it longer than recommended. We even ran it almost continuously for over half an hour between matches and pre-charging and never once ran into a problem.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by mman1506

We had a ton of issues with blowing the fuse on the PDB while using a Thomas compressor off the PCM. We had to be pulled off the field a couple of times due the fuse blowing while pre-charging. It could be that our compressor is faulty and has a exceptionally high startup current but I'd really like to see a more robust solution in the future.

Per the 2015 rules, you were allowed to run the PCM off one of the 20A breakers, it didn't have to go through that fuse... Try switching it and see if you still have problems, assuming you have everything setup still. Keep in mind that teams that did go through the fuse were combining the compressor load with anything they had hooked up to the VRM, so it may not be solely the compressor that was blowing the fuse, it was just the piece that sent you over the top.